The Baloch according to Ferdowsi Click to download the document in PDF format
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The aim of the present paper is to discuss the information about the Baloch that we can gather from the Persian heroic epos Šāhnāme. The passages where the term balōč appears in the Šāhnāme are cited and interpreted not according to their place in the epos, but according to the argumentation being followed: (...)

The absolute dualism of Mani Click to download the document in PDF format
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What remains today of that tolerant, non-violent, unifying “Religion of Light” which embraced the world and moved so many souls for a thousand years? Why was Manichaeism — so revolutionary, so deeply humanist, religious and universal — relentlessly persecuted by all empires and religions?
Today, as (...)

Quasi-colonial life in Braim, Abadan, 1940s and 50s Click here to read the article
Abadan is special. Or at least, it used to be special. Its urban and social fabric stands out from all other Iranians cities. Its inhabitants are unmistakably Abadani. How is that? If oil (...)

Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century; their language became a lingua franca of trade, and in the 7th century the Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang noted with approval that little boys were (...)

Mazdakism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism: In Search of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy in Late Antique Iran Click here to download the article in PDF format.
In the history of Sasanian kingship, there often exists a dichotomy between monarchs who are depicted as straying from the path of the Good Religion at the hands of evil advisors, versus others who are praised as its upholders thanks to virtuous counsellors. (...)

Like most civilizations, Europe has three layers of history: Mythological: Ancient Greece Legendary: Rome and part of Middle-Ages Historical: Since Renaissance
To these three periods, the temptation is made to add a pre-historic period through the Scythes who lived partly on lands situated in modern Europe. To make Scythians a European people, academic literature uses the very deceitful qualifier of “Iranian (...)

Yuezhi on Bactrian embroidery Click to download the document in PDF format
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The present brief article treats only one facet of Bactrian Yuezhi imports to Mongolia, the embroideries on wool textiles made at the turn of the era having anthropomorphic ornament. More precisely, I will focus on those examples which have been best preserved — but sometimes in a quite fragmentary state (...)

This World Congress has Two Main Focus of Interest.
The first is to honour the memory our great late charismatic Chairman of MEDICINA ALTERNATIVA – LORD PANDIT DR. PROF. SIR ANTON JAYASURIYA
This Congress focuses on the gathering together of old friends. All of us remember him and his pioneering work gathering together people from all over the world and India every year for upliftment of all methods of healing and health care. His famous words were – laughter is the best medicine. Patient wants to be well — (...)

One obvious answer was that between the sixth and fourth centuries BC, the land of Israel was under the political control of Persia. The Persian Empire acquired Palestine around 540 BC, and it was the Persian king Cyrus who permitted the Jewish exiles to return to their homeland. Persia held the land until the conquest by Alexander the Great in 330. As we see in texts like Ezra and Nehemiah, Jews were part of a Persian political world, and that dominance lasted for a solid seven or eight generations.
Ezra and (...)

In our previous treatments of this subject we demonstrated that the Holy Grail of Arthurian legend was in all probability a veiled allusion to Baphomet, the mysterious severed head allegedly venerated by the original Knights Templar. It was further demonstrated that Masonic Templary in turn incorporated this imagery into its own ritual in the form of an initiatory skull cup, the same of which fulfils the requirements of being both a severed head and a sacred cup. In the present paper we will tackle the problem (...)

The first three chapters are devoted to analysis of the main periods of pre-Islamic history of the Iranian world (the time bounds being different for different regions): the Achaemenid-Scythian time (the 7th-6th cc. BC — 4th–3rd cc. BC, for Transoxiana — up to the mid. of the 2nd cc. BC); the Parthian-Sarmatian time (the 4th/3rd cc. BC — the 3rd/4th cc. AD); the Sassanid and Early Medieval time (the 3rd/4th — the (...)

Like the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, Hamma F. Mirwaisi divides his book in three part: legendary, semi-historical and finally, autobiography. In the first part, he treats the period from the germination to the Achaemenid Empire; in the second, the period from the conquest of Alexander to Arab invasion; and the last part is the story of the life of millions of Iraqi Kurd, but told in the third person, that of the (...)

The date and place of the event was the World Congress organized by Zoroastrian College in January 1999 at Russian Culture House in Mumbai, India. Field Marshall Sam Maneckshaw was invited at Chief Guest. He was presented with the solid silver medal — Kaikhushroo Ardeshir Master QC award, which was specially made in memory of my late father. He was introduced by Col. Pesi Cama who had served in the Indian Army (...)

Just last night I returned from Korea via Malaysia after attending a very big International Conference on Peace. It was organized by an NGO named Heavenly Culture World Peace and Restoration of Light (HWPL), one of the largest peace organizations in South Korea. Over 4000 persons attended the mammoth program held in the Olympic stadium in Seoul. The Conference was called World Alliance of Religions Peace Summit. The main heads are an elderly gentleman over 83 years old named Chairman Man Hee Lee and a lady Chairwoman Nam Hee Kim
In this huge gathering there (...)

The Persian Puppet Russia — Such a nice doll it is! Always plays so gaily in my hands !
The author has reproduced some of the best caricatures from the illustrated Parsi (Parsee) comic weekly. These cartoons mirror the social and political situation of Bombay and the western provinces of the country in the light of world events. There are also academic accounts of the history of the Parsi community in India and how politics, religion, reforms, identity and foreign affairs affected their lives.
The Parsee Punch made its mark as the only illustrated comic (...)

Latest news

Source: Anadolu Agency.
Turkey’s Göbeklitepe, the site of the world’s oldest temple, may be also the home of the first pictograph, according to a scene etched into an obelisk.
A scene on an obelisk found during excavations in Göbeklitepe, a 12,000-year-old site in the south-eastern province of (...)

Source: The Siberian Times.
Scientists last week opened the mummified child’s remains cocooned in birch bark and copper which — combined with the permafrost — produced an accidental mummification. Wrapped in reindeer hide and fur, the 6-to-7 year old was protected by a child-sized bronze axe and (...)